About the Endangered

Ringed seal

Ringed seals are the most common and widely distributed seal in the Arctic. They feed on cod, and a variety of planktonic crustaceans. They are food to polar bears, and the smallest of the seal species. They spend most of their time near shore ice, but because of the cone shaped breathing holes they can make with their flippers, they can reach areas much further from the ice edge than others seals can. They can dive very deep, 300 feet, and don't need to come up for air for as long as 45 minutes.

The only time these solitary creatures come together is when they breed and rest on the sea ice, but they stick close to breathing holes so they can make a quick escape. When there is enough snow, they often make snow caves in which they raise their young. The shelter protects the young from harsh weather and predators. After 2 months however, they are left to fend for themselves, having learned to dive from birth.

These beautiful, harmless animals have survived for generations in the Arctic, and adapted to make themselves as suited to its harsh conditions as possible. But now that's all changing. Pollutants in the Baltic Sea are causing populations there to decline, and hunters kill them for subsistence. But this is not their main threat. Climate change is.

With sea ice melting, they have nowhere to hide from predators, nowhere to give birth and nowhere to build snow caves. Building snow caves also depends on there being enough snowfall, and as the earth warms, the amount of snowfall is dropping, leaving the seals with nowhere safe to raise their young. And as ice cracks early due to warmer spring temperatures, and snow caves collapse, pups are often separated from their mothers and left to die or be eaten by predators as they are too young to survive on their own.

Ring seal reproductive rates are already declining. For example, hundreds of pups are usually born each year on the fjords along the west coast of Svalbard, but in 2006 and 2007, the pups were nearly non-existent due to the fjords not freezing for the first time in recorded history.

But the seals' decline is not only bad for them, but all their predators too including polar bears and snow foxes who often rely on seals as a main food source.

So please, think about the environment just a little more. Consider what is happening in places you may not normally think of. Because, you wouldn't want the ringed seals to die out, would you?

Written by DazzieSh